adoptive parents and children detained in Haiti

This was forward to me by my friend Debra. Sarah Thacker is in Haiti right now. She went down to try to bring their child home - a legally adopted child who had permission from both Haiti and the US to leave. Instead, she found herself detained and her child was taken to a UNICEF camp. She wrote this today:

On Friday morning, I flew into PAP on an Agape flight. I was met at the airport by two escorts from the orphanage and six children. I was coming to help escort my son, Reese, age two, and five other children home to the United States. We waited all day at the US Embassy for the last military flight out of there. (It was so wonderful to be with Reese) All of the children were cleared to leave, signed off by the Prime Minister, etc. The flight was cancelled. Big surprise. We were told we could make our own private arrangements b/c there would be no more military flights out. We arranged to have Agape flights fly us out on noon on Saturday. We stayed with the children in a guest house on Friday night.

On Saturday morning, we packed up the kids in a taxi and headed to the airport. Minutes after the taxi dropped us off, we were attacked by an angry mob of men saying that we were trying to steal the children. They tried to take the kids from us. The Haitian police came and detained all of us. It was horrible until the US Embassy got there. They were pretty worthless though. We sat on the street with the children outside of the airport for six hours while the Haitian police, border patrol, immigration, and the US embassy had a huge pissing match. It was unbelievable. Then they took us down to a police station for three hours while they continued to sort things out. They let us go, but they took the children from us and they are sitting in a UNICEF tent camp. I'm writing this out and I can't even believe that this has happened. I am staying at an international doctor's house. The US Embassy is "working" on it. Actually, I'm pretty sure that Hillary Clinton has gotten involved. It escalated quickly. I know for sure that my senator is heavily involved. My husband is in Florida right now waiting for us to get out of Haiti. He was going to meet the plane on Saturday afternoon.

Sarah is just one of many families affected by this. I haven't seen this on the news yet, but I suspect it will be soon.

With so much suffering going on in Haiti, focusing on legally adopted children seems senseless. I am at a loss for words. Please pray for these families, and for the children who have been separated from their new parents. I can't imagine how traumatic this is for all of them.

My blood is boiling. I've just blogged about this and similar issues with Unicef and other powerful interests. Unfortunately, I've also become angry with some large, well-known NGOs that I feel are protecting their interests rather than those of the children.

No, it was not UNICEF at the airport, from my understanding. It was Haitian locals who were confused. The kids were then taken to the UNICEF camp, which prohibited the legal parents from staying with their adopted children.